I'll be using www.fuelly.com to track my mileage when I pick up my car next week. It appears I'm the only AH3 owner tracking at this time. I've never done it before, but figured it might be fun.

I encourage all other AH3 owners to sign up. You input the gas information at the pump on your smart phone. It's basically like an app, but you use the mobile browser + sign in, to input your data. I use an iPhone, but I'm sure it's the same for Android.

New AH3 owner and happy to join. I didn't see a listing for "AH3" on fuelly.com. How did you list yours? Or, better yet, how do we get fuelly.com to create a distinct listing for "AH3" if there isn't one already?

i make sure to reset the mpg every time i fill the gas to get more accurate average..

i've seen 35+mpg on highway and 31.8 combined mpg...450+miles for one full tank. And i am seeing 32+ mpg (combined) on current tank..

and the power is simply incredible. my break-in period is finally over and did full throttle last night for the first time....and couldn't stop doing it. That extra torques really make the difference..

My new 2013 AH3 is only ~100 miles old now and I have a couple of newbie questions for you and the other AH3 owners here:

1.) "break-in period"?? Didn't hear anything about that from my dealer....
What is it?

2.) After these 100 or so miles, I'm surprised/disappointed that I'm only seeing 19-20 mpg around town...and that's with lots of feathered starts in EcoDrive, etc. I was getting ~18mpg in my 2010 535 manual trans...and expected this to be a lot better. 450 miles per tank seems like a distant fantasy. Any ideas or suggestions what's going on?

I want to buy an activehybrid 3
I have a question for you: is it possible to directly start in full electric mode even if the engine is not warm. For example in the morning you take your car and you go directly in electric mode or you must wait that the engine is at good temperature like for the start/stop system?

Because i have only 2 or 3 km in the city to go to my job and with my actual car the engine is not warm when I arrived to my job/my home.

I want to buy an activehybrid 3
I have a question for you: is it possible to directly start in full electric mode even if the engine is not warm. For example in the morning you take your car and you go directly in electric mode or you must wait that the engine is at good temperature like for the start/stop system?

Because i have only 2 or 3 km in the city to go to my job and with my actual car the engine is not warm when I arrived to my job/my home.

Thank you.

Sorry for my english, I come from belgium...

No, the eDRIVE mode is only active when the engine is warm and climate control demands (heating) are sufficient.

Note that the engine takes very little time to warm to the point of satisfying this requirement. On warm days I've had the engine shut off less than a minute into driving. The main cause of the engine staying on is when it's cold outside and you're using the heater. Then it might take up to 5 minutes of driving before the engine is warm enough to satisfy climate control requests.

Also remember that pure electric driving is not necessarily the most efficient way of driving for a hybrid car like the AH or Prius. The battery is small and has to be charged by the engine. If you waste all your charge doing constant-speed driving (where the engine is very efficient), you'll end up having to run the engine harder to recharge the battery -- not to mention if you reach a hill or have to stop, the motor won't have enough power to assist you.

This car is pretty smart at managing what mode is most efficient at any given time.

New AH3 owner and happy to join. I didn't see a listing for "AH3" on fuelly.com. How did you list yours? Or, better yet, how do we get fuelly.com to create a distinct listing for "AH3" if there isn't one already?

Thanks!

Hi there, welcome!

I never saw the AH3 listed as a choice, so I just created the vehicle. You may have to do the same?

My new 2013 AH3 is only ~100 miles old now and I have a couple of newbie questions for you and the other AH3 owners here:

1.) "break-in period"?? Didn't hear anything about that from my dealer....
What is it?

2.) After these 100 or so miles, I'm surprised/disappointed that I'm only seeing 19-20 mpg around town...and that's with lots of feathered starts in EcoDrive, etc. I was getting ~18mpg in my 2010 535 manual trans...and expected this to be a lot better. 450 miles per tank seems like a distant fantasy. Any ideas or suggestions what's going on?

Thanks!

Hello,

1. "break-in period" is a period where you are gentle with the car. Some people believe in it, and others don't. So whether you follow it or not is up to you. You can find more info about it on pg 150 in the AH3 owner's manual. It recommends keeping the engine below 4500 rpm, and keeping to speeds below 100 mph for the first 1200 miles. There's also some stuff on the tires and brakes.

2. I also saw only 19-20 mpg on the first 100 miles. It steadily got better after that. Now I'm between 23 and 24 mpg with an average speed of 24 mph. That speed indicates I'm in a lot of stop and go traffic.

I called the model the "ActiveHybrid 3", no quotes. If you do the same, it might hopefully consider them the same car and do proper tracking. I had some email dialog going for a while with a support member for Fuelly. They were hesitant to create a unique profile for the AH3 because they think it's the same thing as a 335i

Remember that the bulk of these tanks are 25% highway trips (50 mile weekend trips mainly) but 75% Californian commutes to work in dense traffic. The one tank at 29mpg was 150 highway miles mixed with a week's commute.

Remember that the bulk of these tanks are 25% highway trips (50 mile weekend trips mainly) but 75% Californian commutes to work in dense traffic. The one tank at 29mpg was 150 highway miles mixed with a week's commute.

Very good. Do you have a smartphone, you could use the Fuelly mobile site bookmark (equivalent to an app) to input the data during your fill ups.

What driving mode have you been using?

Yesterday I was in really heavy traffic for 30+ minutes. Average speed ~15mph. I think the AH3 could make do with an even bigger battery! I could easily cruise along at 15mph on pure battery, but it depletes quickly, maybe 1% per second? Once it gets down to 7%, the ICE of course comes back on, and you really can't run in pure eDrive until the battery charge gets up to ~ 30%.

I called the model the "ActiveHybrid 3", no quotes. If you do the same, it might hopefully consider them the same car and do proper tracking. I had some email dialog going for a while with a support member for Fuelly. They were hesitant to create a unique profile for the AH3 because they think it's the same thing as a 335i

Thanks! will do the same.
i will be furious if anyone ever think the AH3 is the same thing as 335i. (joke intended, 335 owners.)

Thanks! will do the same.
i will be furious if anyone ever think the AH3 is the same thing as 335i. (joke intended, 335 owners.)

how do you like your AH3?

Loving the AH3, and I came directly from a 2012 E92 M3.

The AH3 is very solid, I love the tech and the driving experience. It is a VERY fast car, as you know.

I think the styling of this car is beautiful, and especially love the LED angel eyes. When I want to save gas (much of the time), I just putter along in Eco Pro. But when I want to have fun, Sport mode is just crazy fast.

I honestly would not change a thing about this car. Sure, I would love to get 38mpg instead of 28mpg. But there is really no car with this kind of power and weight that really gets better mpg than what I get now.

The AH3 is very solid, I love the tech and the driving experience. It is a VERY fast car, as you know.

I think the styling of this car is beautiful, and especially love the LED angel eyes. When I want to save gas (much of the time), I just putter along in Eco Pro. But when I want to have fun, Sport mode is just crazy fast.

I honestly would not change a thing about this car. Sure, I would love to get 38mpg instead of 28mpg. But there is really no car with this kind of power and weight that really gets better mpg than what I get now.

Very good. Do you have a smartphone, you could use the Fuelly mobile site bookmark (equivalent to an app) to input the data during your fill ups.

What driving mode have you been using?

Yep, I'll be using the mobile site to input my data. Was using Gas Cubby before to keep the data for myself, but hey I might as well share.

I mostly use Comfort mode, and switch into Eco Pro mode when I recognize that it'll be helpful. This is mostly when driving over hilly highway (where the coasting has significant benefit), or when driving in moderate traffic at around 40mph, which is right above the eDRIVE threshold for Comfort mode.

Quote:

Yesterday I was in really heavy traffic for 30+ minutes. Average speed ~15mph. I think the AH3 could make do with an even bigger battery! I could easily cruise along at 15mph on pure battery, but it depletes quickly, maybe 1% per second? Once it gets down to 7%, the ICE of course comes back on, and you really can't run in pure eDrive until the battery charge gets up to ~ 30%.

Haha, save that for the ActivePlugin 3/5 . Remember that the battery is the biggest win when it recovers "free" energy from coasting and regen braking. If it gets much bigger, you're definitely going to need a plug to recharge it. eDRIVE does deplete the battery quickly, which is why the car in normal driving wants to kick in the engine relatively quickly, and doesn't want you to stay in eDRIVE for a long period of time unless you're in your "destination zone".

If the battery were bigger, the car would just spend a longer time idling to charge between 7% and 30%. I'm sure the engineers worked through the tradeoffs in picking the battery size they did. Hopefully it was the right decision

Quote:

I honestly would not change a thing about this car. Sure, I would love to get 38mpg instead of 28mpg. But there is really no car with this kind of power and weight that really gets better mpg than what I get now.

Ditto. And this is exactly the point. It's not "eh my 316d gets way better mileage"... it's that no other car balances sportiness, raw acceleration, refinement, and fuel efficiency as well as this car!

The closest competitors are, IMO:

(1) 2013 Lexus GS450h. Definitely superior in city MPG, and quite good in hybrid seamlessness (a lot more pronounced electric usage though, which might be good or bad depending on what you like). However, the nav system looks like someone found a 1995 PalmOS tablet prototype and stuck it on the dash... and there's nothing sporty or enjoyable about a CVT or a Toyota V6 droning at 3000-5000RPM.

(2) Infiniti M35h. Also marginally superior in MPG, but lacks the refinement. Electric to combustion transitions are very noticeable, and sometimes jarring. Such a shame... it's really close to being good.

(1) 2013 Lexus GS450h. Definitely superior in city MPG, and quite good in hybrid seamlessness (a lot more pronounced electric usage though, which might be good or bad depending on what you like). However, the nav system looks like someone found a 1995 PalmOS tablet prototype and stuck it on the dash... and there's nothing sporty or enjoyable about a CVT or a Toyota V6 droning at 3000-5000RPM.

(2) Infiniti M35h. Also marginally superior in MPG, but lacks the refinement. Electric to combustion transitions are very noticeable, and sometimes jarring. Such a shame... it's really close to being good.

From what I know about those two cars, wouldn't the ActiveHybrid 5 be the better equivalent?

I wouldn't mind a plugin version of the AH3. Maybe we'll get one in 2-3 years along with an LCI refresh and I can experience the new car fun all over again

Although I will admit to liking the 3GT that was revealed today. In 325d guise, it might be just sporty enough.... and looks to return 40mpg+.

jdong: I have only one question for you? When are you starting your own hybrid blog site on the web?

How do you have so much knowledge on this and other topics? BMW could use you on their customer support / marketing line.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdong

Yep, I'll be using the mobile site to input my data. Was using Gas Cubby before to keep the data for myself, but hey I might as well share.

I mostly use Comfort mode, and switch into Eco Pro mode when I recognize that it'll be helpful. This is mostly when driving over hilly highway (where the coasting has significant benefit), or when driving in moderate traffic at around 40mph, which is right above the eDRIVE threshold for Comfort mode.

Haha, save that for the ActivePlugin 3/5 . Remember that the battery is the biggest win when it recovers "free" energy from coasting and regen braking. If it gets much bigger, you're definitely going to need a plug to recharge it. eDRIVE does deplete the battery quickly, which is why the car in normal driving wants to kick in the engine relatively quickly, and doesn't want you to stay in eDRIVE for a long period of time unless you're in your "destination zone".

If the battery were bigger, the car would just spend a longer time idling to charge between 7% and 30%. I'm sure the engineers worked through the tradeoffs in picking the battery size they did. Hopefully it was the right decision

Ditto. And this is exactly the point. It's not "eh my 316d gets way better mileage"... it's that no other car balances sportiness, raw acceleration, refinement, and fuel efficiency as well as this car!

The closest competitors are, IMO:

(1) 2013 Lexus GS450h. Definitely superior in city MPG, and quite good in hybrid seamlessness (a lot more pronounced electric usage though, which might be good or bad depending on what you like). However, the nav system looks like someone found a 1995 PalmOS tablet prototype and stuck it on the dash... and there's nothing sporty or enjoyable about a CVT or a Toyota V6 droning at 3000-5000RPM.

(2) Infiniti M35h. Also marginally superior in MPG, but lacks the refinement. Electric to combustion transitions are very noticeable, and sometimes jarring. Such a shame... it's really close to being good.